Page 9 of A Broken Throne of Bronze

Others, I don’t.

But they all look at me.

The humans look horrified. The lesser fae, shocked.

None of them could have even fathomed something like this happening to a girl like me. A girl like their wives. A girl like their daughters. Their sisters. In the crowd, some people pull the women next to them closer, as if they have the same thought.

More guards stand in the center of the town square, surrounded by onlookers. Though the angry faces spread throughout the crowd tell me that the guards aren’t just here to take me away.

Oh gods.

My chest constricts.

Loren.

Two guards restrain Loren, while a third clamps heavy, steel handcuffs around his wrists. Black and blue bruises mar his handsome face, his right eye swollen shut. Loren bucks against them, knocking his head back into one of the guard’s noses. The guard in front of him lands a punch to Loren’s jaw, but he doesn’t stop fighting.

“Loren!” I cry out, finally letting the tears fall.

He whirls his head around, his good eye widening in shock when he sees me. “Cryssa!” His voice is a desperate, strangled cry. “Cryssa!”

The guards shove him into a prison wagon and chain his hands to the ceiling. They slam the door shut once he’s inside and lock that, too.

“Make way!” a guard orders, and the crowd parts for the wagon. He hops up onto the seat and takes the horses’ reins, urging them forward.

A coach moves ahead and stops, taking the prison wagon’s place.

The guards at each of my sides move me forward, and I stumble.

I look at the crowd. Fear-stricken, Loren’s mother, Catia Grayweaver, clutches a sobbing Jemetha, his younger sister. The girl clings to her mother’s skirts, her eyes puffy and red from crying.

“What’s happened?” I ask Loren’s mother as we pass by her. “What are they doing with Loren?”

“He’s been arrested,” she tells me, voice breaking. “For trespassing and the contempt of a royal.”

“A royal,” I breathe.

The guards urge me ahead. They open the coach door for me, and I step inside. Without giving me time to react, they close it. A click sounds. Then, the coach shudders when they climb on. Dread lines my stomach and tightens its fist around my throat. I almost forget how to breathe.

Sitting in the ornate bronze coach, the gravity of my situation hits me all at once, like a tidal wave.

The stranger that interrupted Loren and me that night—the stranger whose fate is inextricably bound to mine—wasn’t just any noble fae.

He was the Crown Prince Viridian Avanos.

Chapter Three

The ride to Keuron is four or five days, at most.

I ride in the carriage alone. It seems that the Crown Prince can’t be bothered to spend the days of travel with his betrothed. Though I can’t say I’m unhappy about it. After everything he’s done, I might have strangled him had I been forced to accompany him.

For the whole ride, and when we stop to make camp for the night, I try to see the prison wagon ahead of us. But it’s no use—the coach and the horses that pull it obstruct my view.

It’s only when we finally arrive in the city that I perk up in my seat. When we pass through the city gates, I uncross my arms and lean to look out the window.

Tall buildings reach for the skies. Multi-story homes with cobbled roofs line the streets. Colorful banners hang on lines of string that stretch overhead. Bustling shops filled with people, of many different backgrounds, fill the roads with chatter, mingling as if they’re the greatest of friends. Smells of baked goods I don’t recognize fill my nose. There are market stands outside of the shops, with vendors calling out to people that pass by.

One vendor, a lesser fae merchant, holds out a gold necklace and a paperweight made from gohlrunn—a weighted kind of gold alloy that Slyfell’s artisans use for crafting expensive items—shouting out ridiculous prices. Sure, crafted pieces are more valuable than raw metal, but the gold seems to be worth more here than back home. The lack of men and women covered in dirt and dust makes me remember that there are no miners in Keuron. All the mining is done in the Courts, so any metal found here is imported. That explains the higher price.

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